Fastening Apparatus of Combined Boat

ABSTRACT

A fastening apparatus of a combined boat for securely joining boat hulls of the combined boat is disclosed. Grooves ( 3 ) are provided at the peripheries of joints of the boat hulls. The fastening apparatus includes a holding band ( 2 ) with ridges ( 4 ) mating with the grooves ( 3 ), and the holding band engages via the ridges ( 4 ) with the grooves ( 3 ) so as to join the boat hulls of the combined boat together securely. The fastening apparatus of the combined boat is simple in structure, easy to manufacture, and convenient to assemble and disassemble.

TECHNOLOGY FIELD

This design relates to an apparatus of combined rowboat and kayak,especially a kind of combined boat that has semicircle shaped bandfastening part with grooves inside to fasten the boat securely.

BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGIES

The small rowboats and kayaks that are commonly used nowadays mostly aremade of glass fiber reinforced plastics or normal plastics or materialslike that. These kinds of materials have advantages of low cost and easyto make, but the strength and durability of boats and kayaks made ofthem are not as good as the ones traditionally made of metal and wood.Currently the combined boat design field uses screws, locating pin andsplint to fix the separate parts of the boat together. This kind ofapparatus has small force contacting surface, so it has a great pressureat the joints and the small surface; therefore, the material fatigue orcreep is easily occurred. And this might cause the shortened lifespan ofthe boat and safety issues. Also, this kind of structure is complicated,and it is hard to assemble, hard to take apart, and the nuts/screws areeasy to lose.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,145 A published a transferrable boat.The two parts of the boat is combined through a “T” shaped structurethat requires 3 sets of nuts/screws. This kind of structure iscomplicated, and the assembling and disassembling requires the help of awrench, so it is not convenient.

Also, CN 2106793 U published a combined boat that uses several locatingpins and screws to fasten the two bodies. So separately operating on thelocating pins and screws are required when assemble and disassemble theboat. And tools are required to perform these tasks. Therefore, it isnot convenient.

JP 5131979 A published a submerged device. It uses holding band to fixwith the groove on boat. This holding band is the combination of twosemicircles. When it is fastened, the two semicircles are combined toform a whole circle and it can adjust the inner circumference using thehinges on the circle. This kind of structure is complicated and not easyto operate and use. And this kind of design is for devices underwater,which has a different environment from the boat that travels on thewater, like my design, fastening apparatus of combined boat.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,825 B2 published a connecting cylindrical apparatus,like showing in FIG. 2. It uses two semicircle holding bands to fix withthe groove on the boat. It is similar to the above design from Japan.The disadvantages of this design are some tools are needed whenassembling it since the screws are tightly fastened on the twosemicircles. And this kind of design has a complicated structure too. Itis not east to operate and it has great pressure on the connecting part.This device is used under water, which is different from the boat andkayak that travel on the water. The environments are different.

WO 2008049158 A1 published a kind a boat that has some anchoringstructure at the front and back of the boat. Through the holding bandand anchors, it connects the different pieces of bodies together. Thiskind of structure might seem to be easy to operate, but it might not beeasy to assemble, disassemble and fasten. And when there is a big wave,the safety of the boat is concerned.

Design Content

To solve the above problems, this design is intended to provide anapparatus that is a simple, secure, easy to manufacture, convenient tomount and dismount.

To achieve the above results, this design uses the followingtechnologies: a strip holding band, made of fiber, resin matrixcomposite, and/or plastic, is used to combine separated parts of arowboat and kayak. The characteristics are: grooves are provided at thejoints of the boat hulls; a fastening apparatus includes a semi-circleshaped holding band with ridges mating with the grooves, and the holdingband engages via the ridges with the grooves so as to join the boathulls of the combined boat together securely.

By using the above technologies, since the holding band has ridge on it,it mates the groove part on the boat tightly and securely. The holdingband that has a closed semi-circle shape can connect all the surfaces onthe boat together tightly. The whole apparatus is simple structured;since the ridge and the grooves are connected tightly, these two partsare not easily slide away from each other to make sure the whole boat istravelled in the water smoothly and safe.

As an improvement of the above technology, the holding band has aconnecting part that can form a connecting or disconnecting status. Whenthe connecting part is on the connecting status, the separated parts ofthe boat are combined together to form a complete boat; when thecombined boat needs to be separated, the connecting part is on thedisconnecting status. It is convenient to connect or disconnect theboat.

As an improvement of the above technology, the connecting part is abuckle which can be fastened and unfastened by hand without using anytools.

As an improvement of the above technology, the holding band has hingesaround the edge of the boat. Having the hinges makes the holding bandbetter connected two separated parts of the boat, to ensure the boattravels safer and more stable.

As an improvement of the above technology, the holding band is made offiber and/or resin matrix composite materials.

Useful Effects

Boats with this semicircle strip holding band structure provided in thisdesign have many advantages. For example, when people are boating, withthe boat that made with glass fiber reinforced plastics, normalplastics, or similar materials, the connecting part has a wide and bigcontacting surface, so the pressure is small and evenly spread out. Theconnecting groove near the gunwale is strong, so it will not deformeasily under great pressure. It does not require to use tools toassemble or disassemble. The user can use his/her hand to perform thetasks. It is easy to assemble and disassemble. It does not need screwsor locating pins.

Since the user of the design boat is normally not a professional thathas much knowledge about boats, it is hard for the user to proper adjustthe level of tightness of the screws, so it could be easy to break it ifit is fastened too hard and could be unsafe if it is not fastenedenough. But this design eliminates this kind of problem.

Nuts and locating pins are small objects. They are easy to get lost bystoring and transporting, especially when assembled or disassembledaround the lake or the sea. These places usually have sand, gravel orgrass, and it would be hard to find the lost pieces, which will causedifficulties to use the boat. But this design eliminates this kind ofproblem.

The forces caused by buoyant, the wave from the water, the shear forcebetween the boat and the water, and the weight of user/users and theirmovement on the boat can cause the screw and locating pins to developfatigue easily. And the screws might be loose or damaged after using itfor a short period of time. To eliminate this problem, some morematerial must be used to reinforce the strength of the screw andlocating pins; therefore the boat weight is increased.

The boat weight itself is an important factor that the user chooses whatkind of boat to purchase. From the storage to the vehicle, the vehicleto water, the user normally carries the boat using his/her own strength.It might be difficult for people that do not have enough strength, forexample, some women, elders and disabled. The weight of the boat isimportant. This design makes the combined boat lighter. For the peoplethat love sports, leisure activities, and fishing, this design is verygood to them.

This designed combined boat can be placed on the back seats or in thetrunk of a car. It is easy to transport, saving energy, and it is easyfor the users to carry on their own, to assemble and disassemble, and italso saves material usage.

Also, this designed boat can be assembled or disassembled quickly. Thiscould be very useful when it is under emergency, such as saving lives onthe water, general saving, and evacuating, etc.

DRAWING DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is the top view of the fastening apparatus of combined boat

FIG. 2 is the side view of the fastening apparatus of combined boat

FIG. 3 is the grooves on the combined boat

FIG. 4 is the semicircle shaped apparatus side view

FIG. 5 is the semicircle shaped apparatus inside view

FIG. 6 is the semicircle shaped apparatus lock side view

FIG. 7 is to show how the separated parts are connected together

DETAILED OPERATION METHOD

The following is an example on how to operate the combined boat with thedrawings:

According to FIG. 1 to 7, this fastening apparatus is intended tocombine the part 1 together tightly. The part 1 contains grooves (3);the fastening apparatus contains holding band (2), and the holding bandis made of fiber and/or resin matrix composite materials. Holding band(2) has ridges (4) that match the grooves. The ridges (4) and thegrooves (3) are tightly connected together via the holding band to makesure the separated pieces of the boat combined as a whole body.

Based on the above technology, since the holding band has ridges (4),which matches the grooves (3), and to make sure these two parts areconnected together tightly. The closed semi-circle loop on the holdingband (2) connects separated bodies into a whole body. The wholestructure is simple; since grooves (3) and ridges (4) are matedtogether, two separated boat bodies are not easily slide away from eachother, so the boat is traveling safer and more stable.

In this example, the boat is combined with three separated bodies. Thebodies are connected using the holding bands (2) from each other. Ifthere are more bodies, the same method applies to other bodies and theholding bands on each separated boat body can connected the bodies fromone to another.

In this example, according to FIGS. 4 and 6, the holding band (2) has aconnecting part (6) that can be in connecting status or disconnectingstatus. When the connecting part (6) is at connecting status, separatedpieces of boat are connected together; when it needs to be separated,the connecting part (6) is at disconnecting status. The operation ofconnecting and disconnecting is simple. In this example, the connectingcan be a buckle. Using this kind of connecting method can set holdingband (2) to be at connecting or disconnecting status, to connect theseparated boat pieces together or separate them. The connecting part canbe other publicly known connecting structures if it can set the holdingband (2) at connecting or disconnecting status, which is not furtherillustrated here.

In this example, according to FIG. 4, the holding band (2) has hingesaround the edge of the boat body. The hinges (5) around the edge of theboat benefits the holding band to attach to the body of the boat better,so that two separated bodies are connected together tighter, and theboat is more stable. At the mean while, since the holding band is madeof fiber and/or resin matrix composite materials, having the hinges (5)around the edge of the boat can reduce the wearing down of suchmaterials, and increase the lifespan of the holding band (2).

The above illustration is only the theory of this design and a goodexample of showing how to operate it. It needs to be pointed out that tothe technicians in this technology field, based on the theory of theoriginal design, anyone can make more other modified version of thiskind of combined boats, which are protected under this patent of design.

1. An apparatus of combined rowboat and kayak, made of fiber, resinmatrix composite, and/or plastic, is used to combine separated parts ofthe rowboat and kayak, whose characteristics are: grooves are providedat joints of boat hulls; a fastening apparatus includes a holding bandwith ridges mating with the grooves, and the holding band engages viathe ridges with the grooves so as to join the boat hulls of the combinedboat together securely.
 2. As the apparatus described in claim 1, thecharacteristic is: the holding band has a connecting part that can beformed in connecting or disconnecting form.
 3. As the apparatusdescribed in claim 2, the characteristic is: the connecting part is abuckle which can be fastened and unfastened by hand without using anytools.
 4. As the apparatus described in claim 1, 2 or 3, thecharacteristic is: the holding band has hinges around the edge of theboat.
 5. As the apparatus described in claim 4, the characteristic is:the holding band is made of fiber and/or resin matrix compositematerials.